The Mechanical Man: James Broadus Watson By: Zach Herfel
The Birth of J.B. Watson • James Broadus Watson was born on January 9 th , 1878 near Greenville, South Carolina • Watson was the fourth child out of six • Parents: Pickens Butler Watson o Emma Watson o
Pickens Butler Watson • Descended from independent landowners who settled the back country of South Carolina Picken’s father gave each of his 10 children a parcel of land o • Ran away at age 16 to join the Confederate Army • Married Emma Roe • Banished from family and shunned by neighbors • Pickens attempted to run a sawmill away from home • Pickens worked during the week and then ate, slept, and drank whiskey on the weekends
Emma Watson • Emma Watson was left to raise the children • Devout Baptist • Emma singled out J.B Watson out of all the other children for a special destiny Watson was named after John Albert Broadus o
Schooling • Watson began school at age 6 at a one-room district school • Attended a private academy at age 8 • Emma Watson realized that her expectations of her children were limited due to the small farming community • In 1890, Emma Watson sold the farm
Greenville • Emma Watson moved the family to Greenville • Rapidly growing city In transition from agricultural community to industrial center o Between 1870 and 1880, the population doubled o • During this time, Watson recalls “few pleasant memories from these years.”
Adolescent Years • Watson was enrolled in 7 th grade when he was 12 years old • Described himself as lazy, somewhat insubordinate and never made a passing grade • Watson was bullied and often the center of classroom jokes • Took anger out by fighting with Blacks
Watson’s View of Religion • Still remained a member of his mother church until his college years • Join the First Baptist Church • Grew to dislike all religions • Upward mobile professionals during this time: Grew up in rural areas and attended church o Embraced faith in material progress and believed mankind would be o saved by achievements in technology and science
Furman University Schools in Greenville were an improvement but still • lacked opportunity Watson, age 16, enrolled as a sub-freshman at Furman • University Attended Furman for 5 years • Worked as a assistant in the chemistry lab • Watson did not stand out in college • Watson credits Gordon B. Moore’s classes for drawing • him to psychology An extra year at Furman o Decides to pursue Doctorate in Psychology and • Philosophy Watson graduated with his Master of Arts degree in 1899 •
Post-Furman • Moved away from home in 1899 • Principal at Batesburg Institute near Columbia • Emma Watson became ill and never recovered • Watson’s last tie to South Carolina was gone • Letter to William Rainey Harper, the president of the University of Chicago • Watson left for Chicago in the fall of 1900 • At this time psychology was one of the most promising professions Only recognized for 8 years o
The New Psychology The last quarter in the 19 th century focused on the self- • conscious G. Stanley Hall hoped to legitimize psychology • Hall was one of the first to learn experimental psychology and • methodology The “New Psychology” referred to an empirical approach to • psychological investigation Hall introduced psychology into the academic world through • pedagogy Established the first psychology lab in America and founded • the American Journal of Psychology in 1886 Psychology took off during the 1890’s • Hall claimed that psychology could be used in the classroom • Psychologists still disagreed on “science” •
University of Chicago • Unsettled about his profession • Experimental Psychology Philosophy o Neurology o • Interest in animal or comparative psychology • Watson did not enjoy working with human subjects • Dissertation: Relationship between behavior in the white lab rat and the growth of its nervous system • Animal psychology had its critics
University of Chicago • Watson worked day and night on his experiments • Watson had a breakdown one year before his doctoral work was completed • In 1903, Watson obtained his Ph. D in Psychology
Beginning of Watson’s Career • Applied for assistantship at Carnegie Institute • Dewey and Angell encouraged Watson he stay in Chicago • Fall of 1903 Watson gets instructorship • Watson pushed for a separate psychology program • Dewey left to teach at Columbia • Angell joined the administration at the university Angell backed Watson’s research o • Watson’s speech at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition • The new generation of psychologists
Watson’s Relationships • Watson was interested in young, impressionable women who were initially awed by him • Vida Sutton • Watson became involved with Mary Ickes Similar childhood to Watson o • Watson and Harold Ickes despised each other • Secretly wed on December 16, 1903 • Mary left college Affair with Vida Sutton o • Watson and Mary were publicly wed in the fall of 1904
Baltimore • Applied for a grant at Carnegie Institute • Leave of absence • Watson and Mary moved to Baltimore Mary was pregnant with their first-born o Watson was unemployed o
Back to Chicago • Watson moved back to Chicago Threw himself into his work o • Regular teaching • Lab duties • Edited edition of the Psychological Bulletin • Organized western branch meeting for the APA • Watson’s reputation grew from experimental work and as an organizer and administrator
Controversy • Watson experimented with rats to compare whether normal rats responded differently than those who had senses systematically removed • Criticism: cruel and unjustifiable • Watson responded that criticism had no significance • The mind is an adaptive organ • Study the mind of animals and humans • Studied seagulls in the summer of 1907 in the Florida Keys
Fatherhood • Watson returned to Chicago in time for the birth of his son • Watson was not bothered by crying • Watson’s temperament as a father not very warm • His daughter Mary was favored
Watson’s 1 st Affair • Vida Sutton returned to Chicago • Watson and Sutton met regularly • Mary’s brother, Harold Ickes, hired a private investigator During the time Harold was having an affair o
Johns Hopkins University • 1908: Watson is open to offers from other universities • In March Watson accepted an offer from Johns Hopkins Doubled his salary o • Watson “tasted freedom” at Johns Hopkins and plunged into his work
James Mark Baldwin • Baldwin was hired to create a philosophy and psychology program at Johns Hopkins • Involved with publishing of: Psychological Review o Psychological Index o Psychological Monographs o Psychological Bulletin o • Baldwin was caught at a brothel
Watson’s Golden Opportunity • Watson took advantage of Baldwin’s incident • Received responsibility for the psychology program • Became editor of the Psychological Bulletin • Watson still pushed for separate program Competing universities had programs o Psychologists still struggled for acceptance in the scientific community o
Watson’s Responsibilities • Watson and Robert Yerks published the Journal of Animal Behavior in 1910 • Watson continued to take on more work only to complain Departmental duties o Teaching o Conducting his own research o Planning for the psychological congress o Editing the Journal of Animal Behavior o Co-editing the Psychological Bulletin o
Back to Florida • Watson traveled back to Florida to study migrating and nesting habits of a species of terns • The question: to what extent are fixed modes of responding inherited, and to what extent are organisms equipped with “plastic forms of activity” that require shaping by training or instruction?
Mainstream Psychology • Watson was dissatisfied with mainstream psychology because of introspection • The solution: define behavior as a biological problem well ignoring the conscious
The Modern Era • Series of lectures at Columbia “Psychology as a behaviorist views it” o • Claimed to be a behaviorist Critic of current psychology o Separate approach o • The goal of psychology should be to predict and control behavior • Watson believed the new behavioral psychology could be written in terms of: Habit formation o Stimulus response o Habit integrations o
Behaviorism • Behaviorism was presented by Watson in 1913 • Met requirements as a science • In 1914, Watson published An Introduction to Comparative Psychology • At age 36, Watson became the president of the APA Youngest nominee o
Criticism of Behaviorism • Dewey criticized that behaviorists ignore the social qualities of behavior • E. B. Titchener stated that science was being exchanged with technology Industrial era o • Defenses against criticism Any nonpositivistic position was unverifiable and therefore unscientific o Positivism had no central doctrine that could be scientifically challenged o
Conditioned Reflex • Watson began to research conditioned reflexes Solution to introspection o A method of gathering data and a tool to modify behavior o • Watson became interested reliable and objective methods of studying and treating mental disorders
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